Spelling...

Thank you DrSuperL99 and WestHighlandWay.  I didn't know the full extent of anti-semitism in Europe.  Also didn't know about the significant Jewish population in Latin America--interesting!

Why?  Were there many racist and anti-semitic posh elderly people during that time in England?

You bet. Not just elderly either. The late Queen Mother didn't like Jews near her. She criticised Lord Mountbatten, viceroy of India, "for giving away the empire" and his wife because "her mother was half-Jewish". Before the war began she was a supporter of making concessions to Hitler and the Nazis. She once sent a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf to a friend, saying, "Even a skip through gives you a good idea of his obvious sincerity." her daughter Margaret wasn't much better.

I didn't know the full extent of anti-semitism in Europe.

Europe was where antisemitism was invented!

You bet. Not just elderly either. The late Queen Mother didn't like Jews near her. She criticised Lord Mountbatten, viceroy of India, "for giving away the empire" and his wife because "her mother was half-Jewish". Before the war began she was a supporter of making concessions to Hitler and the Nazis. She once sent a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf to a friend, saying, "Even a skip through gives you a good idea of his obvious sincerity." her daughter Margaret wasn't much better.

Wow.  Not nice.

Europe was where antisemitism was invented!

True, true.  I can't believe I didn't realize the extent of it though.

Well, there were some Europeans that stood up to Germany, even if they may have been guilty of having anti-Semitism in their culture.  Case in point, Finland, an ally of Germany during most of the war.  When they were asked what they were going to do about their Jewish problem, they said (I think it was their PM) "Finland doesn't have a Jewish problem."  And that was that.  In the end, they only gave a few of their Jewish residents over to the Germans, something they apologised for a few years ago.

Regarding the refugee ships, this is probably the most famous:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html

They ended up being taken in by European countries, some dying as Europe fell to Germany.

You bet. Not just elderly either. The late Queen Mother didn't like Jews near her. She criticised Lord Mountbatten, viceroy of India, "for giving away the empire" and his wife because "her mother was half-Jewish". Before the war began she was a supporter of making concessions to Hitler and the Nazis. She once sent a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf to a friend, saying, "Even a skip through gives you a good idea of his obvious sincerity." her daughter Margaret wasn't much better.

Yes, she also claimed to have "never wanted to be queen", yet, when the king died and Elizabeth was made queen, she refused to move out of Buck House and invented the title "Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother". How odd to have the word "Queen" in your title twice when you never actually wanted to be queen. Funny old bird LOL

It's also why there are large populations of Germanic Jews in Latin America.

I went to high school with many originally from Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, etc. whose grandparents had been turned away from America but found refuge in Latin American countries.

Many Jews immigrated to Argentina.

I said "sidewalk" the other day (which I rarely do) and some smart ass here said, "after 20 years, I'd expect you to get that right by now" or some such crap and I nearly cockpunched him.

I do swear that if I hear, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" one more bloody time I'm going to go postal.

This made me laugh so hard I had tears!

On the word "postal"... I had to explain that to a British coworker the other day. 

On the word "postal"... I had to explain that to a British coworker the other day. 

LOL!  It took my hubby 2 years to admit he didn't know what "cooties" were!!  That was fun to try to explain.

As far as "refusing to 'do as the Romans' being disrespectful"...I never told the thousands of Mexicans who lived in my area of the US that speaking Spanglish was disrespectful...nor did I ever feel it was disrespectful.  I actually thought it was really cool to be able to experience the culture of another country right in my own backyard.  But I guess some people can put a negative spin on everything regardless of how innocent it is.

speaking Spanglish

I don't think you can compare that with refusing to write 'tyre' out of obstinacy

speaking Spanglishquote]



I don't think you can compare that with refusing to write 'tyre' out of obstinacy

Why not? "when in America..." speak English, not Spanglish, right? I used to teach at a school where many hispanic students had been born here in the States, but they still spoke Spanglish even when they knew the correct American/English word. Some of them were 16, 17, 18 years old so it can't be because they were just kids.

FTR, I make an effort to use British English spellings with British people. I do a lot of chat online so I've gotten (got!) a lot of practice in the past few years. I wasn't sure when I started posting here which way I should go, but I figured since most people here are Americans, and I'm still in America, I just stick with American English. I know the differences, but sometimes they really aren't obvious. Automatically assuming I'm being arrogant because I misspell "check" (despite my knowing other differences) is wrong. As was pointed out, plenty of natives misspell their own language! I have a friend who insists on spelling "speech" as "speach" (like "speak" I guess??)

[Sorry- don't know why it's making my reply "quoted". I made sure the code was correct...  ]

I don't think you can compare that with refusing to write 'tyre' out of obstinacy

Mmm it's really the same thing. Come on! We alllllll know those Mexicans could speak proper 'Merican if only they tried hard enough and stopped being so resistant to holding on to their cultural differences!

[Sorry- don't know why it's making my reply "quoted". I made sure the code was correct...  ]

You were quoting my post, which, due to my carelessness, contained a mangled closing quote, and this screwed up your post.

We've come a long way from an enquiry about spelling differences to disrepectful Mexicans.

As a language teacher I can tell you that speaking "Spanglish" is actually an effort to integrate with the US.  If someone hasn't had the long years if training necessary to learn to speak a foreign language fluently, but still does their best, I contend that that is wholly different from refusing to adapt to a regional variant of your own language.  Spelling things the British way doesn't make you less American, as I believe I said before, but people do appreciate when immigrants make an effort to integrate.  Personally, I feel that we have a responsibility to integrate; it doesn't mean we have to give up who we are, just that we should display a little flexibility, open-mindedness, and willingness to learn new ways.